Tiger Woods Bails on Next Week’s FedEx Invitational

Tiger Woods, who has made just one start the past five months at the Memorial Tournament, announced today that he will skip out on the FedEx Invitational next week.

The decision to stay away from the course comes as a disappointment for golf fans -- and golf sponsors -- considering his participation at the Memorial Tournament drew the highest lead-in ratings for Golf Channel ever at this event (1.47 million average viewers) and was the most-watched lead-in since 2019 Genesis Open in February.

The news shouldn’t come as much of a surprise even after an extended COVID layoff. Woods turns 45 in December and is likely looking to buy himself more time to prepare his body for the PGA Tour Championship.

Golf Channel's “Tiger Tracker” Twitter account seems to agree:

Woods knows he’s racing Father Time for Jack Nicklaus’ record 18 major championships, so his passing on FedEx shows a big picture mentality.